Islamic Jihad shells Israel for deadly West Bank raid

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired rockets into Israel on Thursday, ending a week-long Egyptian-brokered moratorium in what it called an "initial" response to deadly Israeli raids in the West Bank.

No one was hurt by the salvo just after midnight against the border town of Sderot but it looked likely to set off alarm bells for many Israelis, who had begun to grow used to the lull following a surge of bloodshed in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Islamic Jihad, a relatively small Palestinian faction that shares the powerful Hamas's refusal to accept co-existence with the Jewish state, had vowed revenge after Israeli troops killed four of its members two West Bank towns on Wednesday.

Hamas said such "aggression" risked killing off Cairo's mediation, seen as key to securing enough quiet for there to be progress in U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

But Hamas stopped short of scrapping the truce talks. It has largely held its fire since March 3, when Israeli forces ended a five-day offensive against Gaza rocket crews in which more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians, and two soldiers died.

Israel has played down speculation a formal ceasefire could be imminent. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to halt attacks on Gaza if there are no rocket launches, but Israel argues that its West Bank raids are needed to stop militants from striking.

"We'll witness more difficult things yet, an even tougher reckoning, before we get to the calm stage," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday.

At least four rockets hit Sderot on Thursday. A house was damaged but no casualties caused, the Israeli military said.